Baylor’s Briles emphasizes the here and now

As tempting as it might be for him to glance across Lake Brazos at Baylor University’s new $250 million football stadium that will open for business in 2014, Bears coach Art Briles said Wednesday he’s managing for the most part to keep his focus on the 2013 season.

Briles, who addressed about 350 Baylor fans at a Touchdown Club of Houston luncheon Wednesday afternoon, said he sneaks an occasional peak at the progress of stadium construction but knows he needs to focus on the upcoming season.

“It’s hard not to envision what it’s going to be like in ’14,” he said. “It’s going to be such a beautiful environment and atmosphere. But we are in 2013, and we have to play extremely well this year and keep the momentum going. It is rewarding to see where our program is going and where it’s going to be.”

Petty takes reins at QB

Where it’s going in 2013, Briles said, likely will depend on the play of junior quarterback Bryce Petty, who hopes to become the latest in the Briles-coached line of successes that includes Nick Florence and Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III at Baylor, Kevin Kolb and Case Keenum at Houston, Kliff Kingsbury at Texas Tech, and Branndon Stewart, Glenn Odell and Kelan Luker at Stephenville.

“The No. 1 thing is quarterback. That is it,” Briles said. “We have a lot of confidence in Bryce. The thing he’s got to do and we have to do is develop an identity. We have an identity with every quarterback, and the only way to have one is to get on the field and create one.

“We’ve got good people to go around him on both sides of the ball and special teams, so all he has to do is be productive, be calm and take advantage of opportunities.”

Each past signal-caller, Briles said, brought different elements to the forefront. Griffin “was a dynamic football player, a quarterback who was an athlete, not an athlete who was a quarterback.” Florence, last year’s starter, was “cerebral and competitive.” Kolb had a great release, and Stewart was a “man among boys” in high school, Briles said.

Despite Petty’s productive spring, Briles said his quarterback’s personality will come to the forefront only when he takes live snaps this fall.

“When we need to have plays made, as that develops, his identity will develop,” Briles said. “We know what he’s about, and what he’s about is helping to lead this team and being a contributing factor. Our players do believe in him.”

Baylor returns six starters on offense, including running back Lache Seastrunk, who Wednesday was named the Big 12’s preseason offensive player of the year, and All-America offensive lineman Cyril Richardson, whom Briles called the nation’s best lineman.

“That’s fact. That’s reality,” he said of Richardson.

Baylor will begin the season without junior right tackle Troy Baker, who suffered a torn ACL in spring practice but could return to play in late September or early October.

9 starters back on ‘D’

Baylor’s defense, led by coordinator Phil Bennett, returns nine starters from last year’s 8-5 team, and Briles said the strong defensive play last year down the stretch, when Baylor won five of its last six games “has to be the norm.”

“We have the best depth we’ve ever had,” Briles said. “We have Big 12 depth now. Everybody is good at every position two-deep. We can play.”

With the momentum from three straight bowl appearances, Griffin’s Heisman Trophy in 2011 and the new stadium (which hit a bump earlier this month with a lawsuit that could delay a pedestrian bridge across the Brazos River from campus to the stadium), “we’ve got a lot of things working in our favor,” Briles said.

“The main factor is production and excitement on the field, and it’s my job to keep that going.”

Briles was joined on the dais Wednesday by Touchdown Club president-elect and former Baylor quarterback Don Trull, who earlier this year was selected to the National Football Foundation’s College Football Hall of Fame. Trull was presented a proclamation by the Houston City Council declaring Wednesday as Don Trull Day in the city.